Mariner-king

Aldarion was the heir to Tar-Meneldur, the fifth King of Númenor. He was renowned as a great sea-voyager and explorer, and known to the men under his command as the Great Captain. In his youth he had sailed to Middle-earth with his uncle Vëantur, the famous navigator who had been the first Númenórean to successfully cross the Great Sea to Middle-earth. That journey awoke a passion for the Sea in Aldarion, and over his long life he voyaged to Middle-earth many times.

It was Aldarion who founded the first Númenórean settlement on the shores of Middle-earth, which he named Vinyalondë, but would be known in later times as Lond Daer. In the north he established a friendship with Gil-galad and the Elves of Lindon, and met with the Men of Middle-earth on the Tower Hills in Eriador. He also worked tirelessly at the building of ships and the planting of forests to provide their timber, an act from which he took his name Aldarion the 'lord of trees' (his original name was Anardil, though this is rarely recorded in the histories).

With the first hints of the arising of Sauron in Middle-earth, Gil-galad sent to a message with Aldarion to his father, King Tar-Meneldur, to request the aid of the Númenóreans. Pondering Gil-galad's letter, Tar-Meneldur saw that his son was better equipped to deal with the rising menace. He thus resigned the Sceptre in favour of his Heir, and Aldarion became Tar-Aldarion, the Mariner-king of Númenor. He reigned for nearly two centuries, during which he continued to travel the Great Sea and to lend aid the Elves of Lindon in Middle-earth.